Chinese encounters with the British were more than merely those between two great powers. There was the larger canvas of the Empire and Commonwealth where the two peoples traded and interacted. In China, officials and merchants had to place the British beside other enterprising foreign peoples who were equally intent on influencing developments there. There were also Chinese who encountered the British in personal ways, and individual British who ventured into a 'vast unknown' with its deep history. Wang Gungwu's book, based on lectures linking China and the Chinese with imperial Britain, examines the possibilities in, as well as the limits of, their encounters. It takes the story beyond the cliches of opium, fighting, and the diplomatic skills needed to fend off rivals and enemies, and probes some areas of more intimate encounters, not least the beginnings of a wider English-speaking future.

王賡武，現任新加坡國立大學東亞研究所主席、李光耀公共政策學院主席，獲頒大英帝國司令勛章（CBE），當選澳大利亞人文科學院院士、美國藝術與科學院外籍名譽院士、颱北“中央研究院”院士、中國社會科學院名譽院士，榮膺國際學術奬、福岡亞洲文化奬。曆任馬來亞大學教授、曆史係主任、文學院院長（1957—1968），澳大利亞國立大學教授、遠東曆史係主任、太平洋研究院院長（1968—1986），香港大學校長（1986—1995），新加坡國立大學東亞研究所所長（1997—2007）。

研究方嚮為中國曆史、海外華人、民族主義、移民研究等，涉及曆史學、文化學、政治學、社會學等領域。